The International Center for Climate Governance (ICCG) on Thursday announced its 2015 ‘Climate Think Tank Rankings’ – a global assessment of the “most cutting-edge institutions working in the field of climate change economics and policy”.

The ICCG said the rankings, published every year since 2012, are compiled by assessing think tanks’ scientific publishing output, activity in organizing conferences and seminars, participation in the latest IPCC assessment report, and their “web performance and use of social networks”.

The full rankings are divided into a ‘standardized’ group that measures efficiency and also provides the overall winner, while an ‘absolute’ ranking measures think tanks’ impact regardless of size.

The Climate Centre – a specialist IFRC reference centre hosted by the Netherlands Red Cross in The Hague, and a relatively small think tank – was 53rd in a top-100 absolute ranking but seventh in the world when judged by efficiency.

“This ranking validates the usefulness of the reference centres model,” said the Climate Centre’s director Maarten van Aalst, “solidly grounded in the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement while exploring new territory and innovations, brokering partnerships, and creating the space for good policy on core humanitarian concerns.

The 100 best independent think tanks in 2015 are not affiliated with any academic institutions, political parties or interest groups and are among 240 on the ICCG’s interactive global map showing where they work.

Carlo Carraro, professor of environmental economics at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and a vice-chair of the IPCC’s Working Group III, announcing the think-tank rankings on Thursday at the annual conferenceof the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economistsin Zurich. (Photo: ICCG via Twitter)